


Coping Mechanisms

by reeby10



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: A little bit of angst, Anal Sex, Awkward Conversations, Bottom Zachary Quinto, Brunch, Chris Pine's enormous dong, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Hallmark Movies, Ice Cream, M/M, Pinto de Mayo 2018, Pinto de Mayo 2019, Post-Divorce, Top Chris Pine, in medias res at that lol, last chapter is the porn!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 16:15:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18720577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: Chris is recently divorced from his wife and he ends up eating a lot of ice cream and watching Hallmark movies to cope. When he brings up one of the reasons for the divorce with Zach, though, things get worse. Then better.





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> I started this fic for Pinto de Mayo 2018 and got half written/posted and then... got distracted, I guess. Because that's the kind of person I am lol So I decided to finish it up and post it here for Pinto de Mayo 2019!
> 
> Each part is a sort of stand alone but still connected ficlet based on three words (from a list rabidchild67 posted). The inspiration words for Part I, originally posted [here](https://voldiebuns.tumblr.com/post/173609387881/pinto-de-mayo-part-i), were _spoon_ , _night_ , and _creamy_.

Chris stared moodily at the blank tv screen as the sky outside darkened to night. He’d gotten home just a little while ago from the signing of the divorce papers. Fuck, divorce papers. He was officially divorced now.

He hated that they’d become one of those Hollywood couples: their relationship blowing up in the news, a fancy wedding on the beach, two years of barely seeing each other as they worked, then divorced. Not that it was either of their fault, not really. Chris certainly couldn’t blame Marie, and he was pretty sure she didn’t blame him. It just hadn’t worked between them.

But now he was single again and he didn’t really know what to do. What did people normally do when they got divorced? Celebrate, he guessed, but that really wasn’t the mood he was in. Maybe he just needed to mourn the end of the relationship, work out the sadness that was left in its wake.

He got up from the couch and headed for the freezer. There were two pints of ice cream in there, barely touched. Perfect. He grabbed one of them at random, then got a spoon and returned to the couch.

Chris dug into the pint of creamy hot fudge sundae ice cream, groaning a little at how good it was. He hadn’t had ice cream in a while, thanks to several roles that had required a strict low-sugar, high-protein diet. But screw all of that right now. He deserved the comfort of eating a whole pint of ice cream while watching tv to drown his sorrows.

Hallmark was showing some movie about a woman who owned a bakery and, apparently, solved crimes. It was already about half an hour in, but that was fine. This was more about letting his brain turn off through the application of cheesy mystery and romance.

He settled in, eating the ice cream down to the bottom spoonful by spoonful. Soon he was sucked into the movie as well, eyes glued on the screen as he watched the main character try to choose between the two men who loved her. By the time he went to get the second pint of ice cream during a commercial break, he was fully invested in the story.

Yeah, this was exactly what he needed to get over his divorce.


	2. Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inspiration words for Part II, originally posted [here](https://voldiebuns.tumblr.com/post/173615371299/pinto-de-may-part-ii), were _brunch_ , _pancake_ , and _divorce_.

“So how’s divorced life?”

Ahh, just the question Chris had been dreading. Not that he hadn’t been hearing it for the past two weeks, sometimes multiple times a day. His answer was always the same vague non-answer that people expected. No real feeling or explanation. But he and Zach had been friends for years, good friends, and he deserved more than that.

“It’s been… endurable,” he finally said. “Lonely, you know, even though Marie and I hardly saw each other anyway. I’ve been eating a lot of ice cream.”

Zach’s eyes raked over him, as much as of him as he could see from the other side of the small bistro table. It made Chris feel a little hot underneath the collar, but he blamed that on the warm May sunlight against his back. “Doesn’t seem to be doing you any harm.”

Chris laughed, because he’d been doing extra sessions with his trainer just to make up for the ice cream. They were both helping his mental health probably, sugar and endorphins and socializing being much better for him than dwelling. He knew what happened when he got too much into his own head, and it wasn’t good.

Their conversation moved onto other things, work and travel and literature, but these days things always seemed to circle back around to the divorce. It wasn’t that he didn’t _want_ to talk about it, it was just that he had talked about it. A lot. To two magazines and a tv reporter even.

But that wasn’t what Zach wanted to know. He wanted to know the dirty, intimate details, because he probably knew those were the things he hadn’t talked about with anyone else. There was the standard answer that he’d given everyone else, and then there was the truth. At least the way he’d lived it.

“Marie didn’t think we were on the same page, life-wise,” Chris finally said. “I’m not sure I disagree. We were busy, yeah, but there were other things we could never quite get the balance on together. We tried to tried to talk it out, but in the end…”

“It happens like that sometimes,” Zach replied, nodding sympathetically. He’d been in enough breakups to understand.

Chris considered for a moment, wondering if he should continue, then decided to just say it. Zach would probably get a laugh out of it, he thought.

“Marie mentioned you, actually, when we tried to talk it out. She, uh, seemed to think you like me,” he said, cringing a little at how it sounded coming out of his mouth. Puerile in a way it certainly hadn’t at the time. “As more than friends, I mean.”

Zach’s mouth fell open a little, but no words came out. Chris was already regretting saying anything. He had told Marie it was ridiculous, but she’d only roller her eyes, telling him fondly that he could sometimes be quite an idiot. This seemed more like one of those times, no matter what she thought.

“That’s…” Zach tried, voice cracking a little. He cleared his throat, and Chris suddenly really hoped this wouldn’t destroy their friendship. “Why does she think that?”

Chris shrugged uncomfortably. “She wouldn’t say, but she was pretty adamant. I told her she was wrong of course.”

Before either of them could say anything more, their waitress finally returned, apologizing profusely for the wait. Chris smiled and told her it was no worry as she set plates of pancakes and sausage and eggs before them. It was hard to remember that they were here for brunch, what with what had just been said.

He couldn’t help but noticing how stiff Zach was with the waitress there, and it didn’t fade as they started to eat. The continued tense silence made worry sink low in his gut. His friendship with Zach was important, more important than almost any other relationship he had, and he didn’t want this to ruin it.

He should have just kept his mouth shut.


	3. Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inspiration words for Part III were _red_ , _sexy_ , and _love_.

Chris was halfway through a pint of caramel swirl ice cream from his newly acquired ice cream stash, leaned over a pile of pillows as another Hallmark movie played on the tv, when he heard the doorbell ring. He sighed, wondering if he should just ignore it.

The doorbell rang again, then a fist pounded on the door a second later, dashing his hopes of just sitting there until they went away. Grumbling to himself, he set his ice cream on the side table and headed for the door. This better be really important.

He opened the door, mouth opened to chew out whoever was on the other side for bothering him, but the words died on his lips when he saw who it was.

“Zach?”

“Hey,” Zach replied, looking a little sheepish even in the wan glow of the porch light. He wasn’t making eye contact, gaze somewhere past Chris’ head. “Sorry for coming so late. And not calling. But I… I didn’t like how we left things at brunch.”

Chris nodded, standing aside for Zach to enter. There was a sick, worried feeling growing in the pit of his stomach that he’d been able to mostly push aside before, until he had to see Zach face to face again.

They settled onto the couch, the silence between them more awkward than Chris thought it had ever been. He waited for Zach to say something, since he’d been the one to come over, but Zach still wasn’t even looking at him. Chris cleared his throat, wondering if he should start talking instead.

Thankfully, that seemed to be all it took to break Zach from whatever standstill he’d been at though. He turned to face Chris a little more fully, one leg pulled up onto the cushion, brushing against Chris’ knee. The spot where they touched seemed hotter than normal, burning like a fire, but Chris was pretty sure that was all in his head.

Zach took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, like he was doing yoga. He finally turned to look at Chris. “I just needed-” He stopped short, face going an interesting shade of red. “You look really sexy.”

Chris looked down at himself, shirtless with yesterday’s sweatpants way too loose around his hips even while sitting. His hair was probably a mess, and there was a high likelihood that there was a fabric impression on his cheek from sitting hunched over on the couch for so long. Not exactly sexy material.

“I don’t think-” he started, unsure of what was going on with Zach right now.

“Sorry, that’s not what I wanted to say,” Zach broke in, shaking his head. He took another breath, his cheeks still flushed. “I wanted to talk about what Marie said. About me having feelings for you.”

“Alright…” That was not really unexpected, but Chris wasn’t sure what else there was to say about it. It wasn’t true, and the imaginary possibility of it seemed only to be hurting all of his relationships. “I already said I told her it wasn’t true.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about. Because it is true,” Zach said. His voice was cautious, like he was afraid of spooking Chris. “I love you, Chris, and not only as my best friend.”

Chris’ breath caught in his throat as he tried to process the words he’d just heard. It had been in the back of his mind ever since Marie had suggested it, but he’d never actually thought it was _true_. To have it put so bluntly was throwing him off quite a bit; it was terrifying and wonderful and he struggled to find something, anything, to say in response.

“Don’t you have…” Chris wracked his mind for a name and came up with nothing. “Whichever twink you’re dating these days?”

“Twink?” Zach asked, like he was offended. They both knew he really had nothing he could say against it. Anyone who had ever read a magazine or seen a paparazzi picture probably knew that.

“What I mean to say is that I don’t want to be the homewrecker in your relationship, Zach,” Chris said, a crooked grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. His heart was beating hard in his chest. “No matter how you or I feel, that’s not the kind of person I am or want to be.”

Zach was already shaking his head before Chris even finished talking. “We broke up weeks ago, and surprisingly there hasn’t been anybody since,” he said, a little wryly. He paused, for a moment that felt like an eternity. “You said no matter how either of us feels.”

“I did,” Chris replied, licking his suddenly dry lips.

Zach’s eyes darted down for a split second and Chris decided to just say fuck it and go all in. It probably couldn’t hurt their relationship at this point. There was only an upside.

He leaned forward for a kiss, and Zach met him in the middle without a second of hesitation.


	4. Part IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inspiration words for Part IV were _marathon_ , _massive_ , and _tight_.
> 
> Also, my notes for this chapter were "Porn, starring CP’s enormo dong" so there's that lol

“God, how are you still so tight?” Chris asked breathlessly, trying with all of his might to hold off from coming.

Zach panted out a laugh, sounding a little strained. “It’s because you have a massive dick,” he said. “And I mean that as a compliment. I’m very much a fan.”

He really was. He’d shown his appreciation frequently and copiously in the past few hours. Not that Chris was complaining, of course. Being appreciated so thoroughly was _really_ not something to complain about in his opinion.

Not that he really had the brain power to complain right now even if he wanted to, though. All higher thoughts seemed to have deserted him in favor of single minded determination to make Zach come harder than he ever had before. And to do it before Chris himself came, which was the real difficulty at the moment.

“Are you close?” Chris asked, hips not stopping their movement. “I want to see you come.”

“You’ve seen me come a half a dozen times,” Zach snarked, gasping when Chris thrust his hips particularly hard in retaliation.

Chris hummed, sliding a hand around to pull at Zach’s cock, setting up a quick rhythm. “But I think one more time would be… exceptional.”

Which, with just a few more thrusts, it was. Zach came with a strangled groan, arms almost buckling from the effort of holding him up. Chris followed after with his own groan, unsure how he even still had it in him to come so hard.

They both immediately collapsed onto the bed, Chris pulling out and rolling so he wouldn’t crush Zach below him. The only sound in the room was that of their panting breaths, still coming hard and fast after such exemplary exertion.

Chris kind of wanted to go again, but he was also pretty sure he was really done this time. And they probably both needed to sleep for awhile after that anyway. It was probably long after three in the morning by now.

“I think marathon sex is a significantly better coping mechanism for getting over my divorce than all that ice cream I’ve been eating,” Chris mused after a few minutes, brain still more than a little fuzzy.

Zach smacked weakly at him, making a somewhat offended noise, but Chris just laughed and turned and wrapped his arms around him. Laying here with Zach, he felt warm and happy in a way he wasn’t sure he ever had before, even when things were good with Marie… Who he should probably send flowers to in both apology and thanks, now that he thought about it.

That was something for later though.


End file.
